Editor’s Note: The interviewee’s name has been changed to Hira to protect her safety. Similarly, her city of residence is referred to under the pseudonym Marivan. This report is based on an audio-visual interview conducted at her residence.
Recap of Previous Events: At age fifteen, Hira was targeted on Instagram by a member of the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), an interaction that escalated into severe coercion against her family. Following failed escape attempts, she was trafficked across mountainous border trails using forged documentation into a PAK camp near Koya. There, she formed a bond with Shilan, another underage victim of emotional recruitment deception. Hira witnessed pervasive gender discrimination, strict bans on communication devices, and pressure to accept a forced marriage with Rebaz Sharifi, a senior commander. In Part Two, Hira recounted the punishment of Delzhin—a recruit tortured and forcibly married after attempting to flee—and detailed the grueling military conditions. Following a staged, heavily monitored meeting with her family in Erbil where she demanded to return home, commanders stripped Hira of her duties, confiscated her savings, and subjected her to intense interrogation.
Hira recalls another recruit named Shogard (real name Soma, from Ilam), who had entered the reception facility alongside Hira and a girl named Zarya within a three-day window. Shogard openly expressed deep regret over joining the organization.
During a private conversation between Hira, Shogard, and Shilan, Hira proposed a collective escape. Shogard suggested a tactic: “Deceive Rebaz Sharifi—the senior commander who proposed to you. Pretend you have fallen in love with him so we can leverage the relationship to open an escape route.” Hira firmly rejected the proposal on moral and personal grounds.
Shortly thereafter, a senior commander summoned her and confronted her using internal aliases, accusing her based on fabricated confessions. It became clear that internal betrayals were being orchestrated to manipulate leadership. This event marked the onset of intensified physical and psychological punishment against Hira.
As a punitive measure, commanders assigned her to extreme guard duties. In the harsh winter weather near Koya, at sixteen years old, Hira was posted alone in total darkness for hours, armed with an unloaded rifle. Camp officials claimed weapons were kept unloaded to prevent suicides—a common occurrence in the camps—though Hira emphasizes that the primary objective was psychological torture. The perimeter was inhabited by wild wolves, with documented attacks in the area. When concerns were raised, commanders explicitly told her that her survival was inconsequential to the organization.
Later, Hira confided in a recruit from Javanroud named Niyan. They planned to capitalize on agricultural work details to cut through perimeter barbed wire during night guard shifts. Hira managed to covertly obtain wire cutters, hiding them inside the lining of a military jacket in her locker. However, Niyan informed camp leaders. A commander went directly to Hira’s locker, unzipped the jacket lining, and retrieved the tool.
The following morning, the compound area was cleared, and Hira awoke to find Rebaz Sharifi standing over her. She was dragged to a solitary confinement cell where severe physical torture commenced. Rebaz Sharifi and other cadres subjected her to brutal beatings, causing internal bleeding and severe spinal trauma.
The injury to her back was so severe that officials were forced to transport her to a local hospital. A medical examination revealed severe damage to her third and fourth lumbar vertebrae, requiring immediate surgical intervention. PAK commanders explicitly prohibited the procedure, declaring: “She is a delinquent Peshmerga; surgery is forbidden.”
Hira was transferred directly from the hospital back to solitary confinement. Conditions in the cell were severe: she received a single daily ration consisting of dry bread and water in total darkness. By the tenth day, prolonged isolation induced severe auditory hallucinations. She was held in solitary confinement for approximately one month with untreated spinal injuries.
After a month, a senior female cadre named Rastak entered the cell and offered release under a single condition: a videotaped confession. At sixteen years old, Hira was placed before a camera and forced under duress to sign and read a statement designed to characterize her as mentally unstable, providing the organization with leverage should she successfully escape.
Following her release back into the general camp population, Shilan re-approached Hira, moved by her endurance of torture and solitary confinement. Crying, Shilan disclosed that she had been lured at age fifteen by fake romantic promises from Hiva, a recruiter who targeted underage girls. Shilan stated her intention to escape and recorded Hira’s family phone number to contact them once outside.
Days later, while on guard shift, Hira observed a movement heading toward the perimeter mountains. Recognizing Shilan, Hira refrained from raising the alarm over the radio, telling her quietly to flee safely. Shilan successfully breached the primary barbed-wire fences—an act carrying an implicit death sentence under camp rules.
However, perimeter guard dogs alerted the camp. Searchlights were activated, and search parties located Shilan. Guards dragged her back into the compound by her hair. Rebaz Sharifi arrived at the scene to confront her. When Shilan pleaded for mercy, Rebaz Sharifi instructed her to walk back toward her quarters. As she turned her back to comply, Rebaz Sharifi drew a firearm and shot her in the back of the head, executing her on the spot.
Shilan collapsed into Hira’s arms, dying instantly. Hira’s uniform was covered in blood. Commanders immediately isolated Hira, threatening her with summary execution if she disclosed the circumstances of the killing, and ordered her to wash the body. Overwhelmed by shock, Hira was unable to perform the task. Officials subsequently used heavy machinery to dig a pit, threw Shilan’s body into the ground in her bloody uniform, covered it with soil, and placed two unmarked stones over the site.
PAK leadership officially notified Shilan’s family that she had wandered into a restricted military zone, detonated a landmine, and that no remains were recoverable. Her mother was eventually permitted to visit the burial site. Standing over the grave, the mother questioned Rebaz Sharifi directly about her daughter’s death. Rebaz Sharifi reiterated the landmine narrative. Hira, standing nearby, remained silent due to immediate threats against her life.
Shortly after this incident, a young female recruit named Hawar (from the Zaribar facility) committed suicide by slitting her wrists in the camp facility. Officials forced Hira to inspect the scene, citing that she had been desensitized to violent fatalities. Hawar’s brother, who was also a active member of the group, rejected the official narrative, directly confronting leadership and notifying their family of the suicide.
To be continued…
